The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to circuit board flex cables used in information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems typically include subsystems that must be connected together. With the increasing desire to provide a variety of functionality in a small form factor, such connections are often required in three dimensions (e.g., with connectors that are off-axis relative to each other) and necessitate connector systems that provide some degree of mechanical compliance. Twin-axial (twinax) cabling is one option for providing such connections, but twinax cables tend to take up a relatively large amount of space and can block airflow through the system chassis, resulting in thermal issues. Flex cabling can solve the issues associated with twinax cabling, as flex cabling can be shaped in a manner that prevents the blocking of airflow discussed above, while providing benefits associated with the many signal lines that can be routed in layer(s) of the flex cabling. However, flex cabling often includes connectors on either ends that are connected to the signal line(s), and those connectors produce degradations in the signal integrity of the signals transmitted via the flex cable. In order to address signal degradation issues, flex cabling may be integrated with a circuit board, thus removing the connector that would otherwise be needed to connect to that circuit board. However, the inventors of the present disclosure have discovered that conventional techniques for integrating flex cables with circuit boards produces an impedance discontinuity where the flex cable terminates in the circuit board, resulting in an impedance droop in signals sent via the flex cable to the circuit board. Such impedance droops negatively effect signal integrity, and provide a less than optimal high speed interface via the flex cable.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved circuit board flex cable system.